HALLING, Anna-Lisa Soror Maria do Céu's Virgin Mary and the Male Gaze VS 26 (2019), p. 165 - 183 SOROR MARIA DO CÉU’S VIRGIN MARY AND THE MALE GAZE ANNA-LISA HALLING BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY [email protected] ABSTRACT: In her late-baroque play, Clavel, y Rosa, the Portuguese nun playwright Soror Maria do Céu incorporates an allegorical figure that embodies the active Virgin Mary that emerged in Europe during the medieval period. By doing so, Soror Maria creates a strong female protagonist that effectively escapes the male gaze of her multiple suitors onstage while simultaneously modeling appropriate behavior for the nun spectators of her play. KEYWORDS: Virgin Mary; Male Gaze; Allegory; Convent Theater; Soror Maria do Céu. RESUMO: Na sua peça do Barroco tardio, Clavel, y Rosa, a dramaturga conventual Soror Maria do Céu incorpora uma figura alegórica que personifica a Virgem Maria ativa que surgiu na Europa durante a época medieval. Assim, Soror Maria cria uma protagonista forte que efetivamente escapa ao olhar masculino dos seus pretendentes no cenário enquanto ela modela um comportamento apropriado para as freiras que iam assistir à sua peça. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Virgem Maria; Olhar masculino; Alegoria; Teatro conventual; Soror Maria do Céu. From Sophocles’s Antigone to George Bernard Shaw’s Eliza to Tennessee Williams’s Rose, the dramatic arts are replete with female figures who range from fierce to fragile. Despite their continuous presence throughout the history of theater, stage portrayals of female characters often do not reflect the lived realities of women. Instead, these representations are frequently nothing more than a projection of male fantasy. The technical term for the objectification of women as a means of achieving sexual stimulation is scopophilia, which is closely linked to the male gaze. Many critics, including Barbara Freedman and Laura Mulvey, have identified the negative effects of the male gaze. They suggest that the aestheticizing of the male gaze informs the concepts of theatricality and characterization. In other words, a dramatic character is theatrical only if “such 165 HALLING, Anna-Lisa Soror Maria do Céu's Virgin Mary and the Male Gaze VS 26 (2019), p. 165 - 183 a person is aware that she is seen, reflects that awareness, and so deflects our look”.1 Just as a staged character deflects the public’s gaze, a theatrical text makes the audience members aware of their own spectatorship. Soror Maria do Céu (1658–1753)2, a late-baroque Portuguese nun,3 wrote in a wide variety of literary genres.4 She penned several plays about the Virgin Mary, and her play Clavel, y Rosa: Breve Comedia alludida a los despozorios de Maria y Josehp,5 in particular, avoids the male gaze by presenting the Virgin Mary onstage in a manner that “leads the audience to be a consciously critical observer”.6 This is accomplished by allegorizing St. Joseph as Clavel and by clearly recognizing the importance of the metonymous connection between rose, rose garden, and rosary, which reveals the traditional importance of the role of the Virgin Mary, who is often portrayed as active, beginning in the medieval period. Soror Maria’s text adheres to this tradition, which enables Rosa, the protagonist and an allegorical stand-in for Mary, to undermine the 1 FREEDMAN, Barbara – Staging the Gaze: Postmodernism, Psychoanalysis, and Shakespearean Comedy. Cornell UP, 1991 (1). 2 In the prologue of Triunfo do Rosario, her name is listed as Maria do Ceo, which means Mary of Heaven. Modern Portuguese requires a different spelling of the word céu. 3 Born along to an aristocratic family with her twin sister on September 11, 1658, Soror Maria was baptized in Lis- bon, Portugal. Although most sources cite 1658 as her birth year, a death announcement published in the Gazeta de Lisboa in 1753 lists the year of her birth as 1657. Ana Hatherly suggests that this was most likely nothing more than a “lapso de revisão” (xv). HATHERLY, Ana – “A Biografia de Sóror Maria do Ceo”, A Preciosa de Sóror Maria do Ceo, Instituto Nacional de Investigação Científica, 1990, p. 6. She was the daughter of Dona Catarina de Tá- vora (Frei António do Sacramento spells Maria’s mother’s name as Catharina rather than Catherina) and António D’Eca. SACRAMENTO, António do – Historia Serafica da Ordem de S. Francisco na Provincia de Portugal. Arqui- vo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Lisbon, MS 703, p. 449. The author of the Livro da fundação, ampliação & Sitio do Convento de N. Senhora da Piedade da Esperança (held in the Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa) lists her father’s name as Antonio de Sâ e Castro (77). As a member of the nobility, Soror Maria had access to education through private tutors. Frei António states that she was both well-educated and pious, devoting herself to reading as well as to modesty and virtue. Early manuscripts by Soror Maria indicate that she had read texts by Lope de Vega, Luís de Camões, Luis de Góngora, and Francisco de Quevedo. She also dedicated poems to Padre António Vieira and read devotional texts, such as lives of the saints. Her intellect and studious nature also impressed one of the authors of the chronicle of the founding of her convent, who notes her “elevado entendimento” and “subtilissimo discurso”. Livro da fundação, ampliação & sitio do Convento de Nossa Senhora da Piedade da Esperança da cidade de Lisboa (1620–1750). MS IL 103, p. 77. By the time she entered the Franciscan Convento da Esperança in Lisbon (now a fire station), she was already known for her poetry, and her experienceintramuros certainly influenced her literary endeavors. In 1676, she took her vows and served once as mistress of novices, once as portress, and twice as abbess. Soror Maria died at the age of ninety-four on May 28, 1753 and the Gazeta de Lisboa published her obituary. Although Mendes dos Remédios indicates 1753 as the year of her death, Inocêncio da Silva, Garcia Peres, and Barbosa Machado list it as 1752. Also, the Gazeta de Lisboa lists the date as May 18, rather than May 28, which Ana Hatherly suggests could simply be a typographical error. 4 In total, nine books containing her literary works were published during her lifetime: A fénix aparecida (1715), A Preciosa (1731), A Preciosa: Obras de misericórdia (1733), Aves ilustradas (1734), Obras várias e admiráveis (1735), the first part ofEnganos do bosque (1736), Triunfo do Rosário (1740), the second part of Enganos do bosque (1741), and Obras varias y admirables (1744). 5 Since no modern edition of this play exists, I employ the original spelling used in the 1740 publication. 6 BRECHT, Bertolt – Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic, ed. and trans. John Willett Hill and Wang, 1964, p. 91. 166 HALLING, Anna-Lisa Soror Maria do Céu's Virgin Mary and the Male Gaze VS 26 (2019), p. 165 - 183 gaze of her male suitors, who prove unsuitable and unworthy when compared to her divinity and authority. In other words, the characterization and portrayal of Mary upends audience expectations and requires the spectator to critically reevaluate this important religious figure whom post-Tridentine ecclesiastical leaders and artists often sought to portray as a passive being. Soror Maria’s play defamiliarizes a well- known character and usurps the male gaze by inverting it and turning it back on itself. In this way, the playwright creates a female protagonist in the subject position who acts, rather than being acted upon, by objectifying her suitors, thereby offering convent audience members a bold Marian example to follow. Although Soror Maria’s dramatic work frames Mary in her traditional position as exemplar, Clavel, y Rosa also emphasizes the power, agency, and subjectivity inherent in Mary’s roles as wife, mother, and intercessor. These roles allow her to effectively escape the male gaze, adhering to a tradition that portrays Mary as assertive and active. In Clavel, y Rosa, the spectator might expect the female protagonist, a young woman surrounded by eager male suitors, to serve as the object of the gaze. However, Rosa exhibits an acute awareness of this attempted objectification and successfully deflects it. By allowing Rosa to appropriate the gaze, the playwright creates a powerful female figure who upends the “active/male and passive/female” dichotomy and thereby breaks with some early modern models in favor of stronger conceptualizations of Mary.7 While many texts, including the Bible, portray the Virgin as meek and submissive,8 Soror Maria creates a Mary who is a strong, powerful, commanding presence and who demands the respect of the male characters. Donna Spivey Ellington points out that during the late Middle Ages, “[a]s Queen of Heaven after her Assumption, Mary was always portrayed as continuing the same close relationship with Jesus that she had enjoyed on earth, sitting at his right hand and ruling over the kingdom of Mercy as he administered the kingdom of Justice”.9 The maintaining of this tradition of Marian authority rather than emphasizing Marian submissiveness reinforces Valerie Hegstrom’s assertion that “the nuns who wrote plays created 7 MULVEY, Laura – Visual and Other Pleasures. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 8 In the oft-cited first chapter of Luke, for example, Mary’s role is limited to accepting her lot as the mother of the Christ Child, and she speaks only three times in order to affirm her humility and submission, despite her misgivings. She first responds to the angel Gabriel’s announcement by asking, “How shall this be done, because I know not man?” (Luke 1:34), and then acquiesces to his command by saying, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38,).